The Digital Petrodollar: Why the USA Controls Global Social Media

The Digital Petrodollar: How the USA Uses Currency to Capture World Data

By Sanju Sapkota | sanjusapkota.com.np

It’s easy to think of the internet as one big global town, where borders don’t matter. We’re told that companies like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok became so big because they had the smartest programmers and the best ideas. But lately, I’ve been wondering if there’s more to the story.

 

Have you noticed that no matter where you live, the app you’re using right now was probably made in America? From the busy streets of Kathmandu to cafes in Casablanca, we’re all scrolling through feeds owned by just a handful of U.S. companies. The real reason might not just be about being better at technology it might be about money. American money.

Why Money Fuels Everything

To get why it’s so hard for any other country to build the next big social network, you need to know about the U.S. dollar’s special role in the world. It’s the currency most countries and banks trust and keep in reserve. That gives the United States a kind of superpower: it can create and lend money more easily than anyone else.

Think about it this way: if a tech startup begins in Nepal, or France, or Thailand, it usually has to earn a profit quickly. Every dollar of investment is hard to get. But in Silicon Valley? A company can lose money for years we’ve seen it happen with big names like Uber and Twitter and still find investors. The U.S. financial system acts like an endless well of affordable cash for these companies.

They’re not just building an app for you; they’re using that deep well of money to buy your time and attention.

Part 1: Your Data is the New Oil

Back in the 1900s, the U.S. made sure it stayed powerful through something called the “petrodollar” a rule that oil had to be bought and sold using U.S. dollars. Now, I think we’ve moved into a new time. Let’s call it the age of the “data-dollar.”

Because of their financial advantage, American companies have built the world’s biggest digital playgrounds. This created a powerful cycle:

1. Growth on Easy Mode: U.S. companies use all that available money to offer us free services messaging, videos, social networks all over the world.
2. Harvesting Information: These “free” apps collect the most valuable thing today: your personal information. What you like, who you talk to, where you go.
3. Building a Fortress with AI: All that information is then used to teach artificial intelligence, making it smarter. That smart AI then becomes a product sold back to the rest of the world.

This isn’t just a race to make the best phone app. It feels like a new kind of digital rule, where countries like mine provide the raw material our daily lives, our chats, our photo and American “data empires” turn it into finished products like advanced AI and super-targeted ads, which they then sell back to us.

Part 2: Why Other Countries Can’t Catch Up

We all know there are amazing tech minds everywhere in India, across Europe, in my home country of Nepal. So why don't we see a worldwide app from one of these places? It’s not about being less smart. It’s about a huge wall made of money.

Silicon Valley is like a giant money magnet. When a startup begins there, it can tap into a river of investment cash. This is partly because the U.S. financial system makes it easier and cheaper to get that money. This sets up a game where one winner takes almost everything.

But there's another trap, called the "network effect." It means the more people use a platform, the more useful it becomes, and the harder it is to leave. The U.S. owns the biggest platforms, so they own all the information on them. That information is the only fuel that can power modern Artificial Intelligence (AI).

So while the rest of the world is trying to build apps, U.S. giants are using our shared data to teach their AI how to think. If you don't own the platform where people connect, you're not the landlord you're just a guest in someone else's digital house.

Part 3: Information is the New Gold

Last century, the key to global power was the "petrodollar." If you wanted oil, you needed U.S. dollars. Today, the key has changed. Now, it's the "data-dollar."

This shift is quiet but huge. It looks like a new kind of "digital takeover." In the past, a powerful country might take another's gold or crops. Today, they take your "digital self" your thoughts, likes, and fears. By owning the social media feeds used by billions, one country can quietly shape elections, shopping trends, and social movements everywhere.

When one nation owns the world's social media, they don't just own the marketplace. They own the world's mind. They can see what a country is feeling before its own people figure it out.

So, What's Next? Can We Have Many Internets?

Can anyone break this cycle? Some places are trying. China has its own separate internet. India is building its own digital systems. But here's the hard truth: even if you build a perfect local app, the U.S. still controls the physical bones of the internet.

The most powerful computer chips (like those from NVIDIA and Intel) and the giant cloud computers that run the world's AI are all tied tightly to the U.S. dollar system. You can write the world's best software, but if the hardware it runs on is bought with dollars, you're still playing a game on their field, by their rules.

Sanju’s Final Reality Check

The tech war of 2026 isn't being fought by programmers in a basement; it is being fought by central banks and lobbyists. We must realize that our "free" social media accounts are actually the most expensive things we own because they are the currency being used to maintain a global monopoly.

In the end, the most powerful tool in the technology war isn't a line of code. It’s the printing press. It makes me wonder: in this border-less online village, who really holds the keys? 

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